


Just My Imagination

by Ashiepants



Series: Nor Any More Heaven or Hell [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Babies, Cops, F/M, Gen, M/M, Original Characters - Freeform, Romance, future stories, sonny/alex, sonny/ofc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 23:22:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12714906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashiepants/pseuds/Ashiepants
Summary: Alex has a few choice run-ins with Vince DiRialto. Sonny starts at the DAs office but can’t let go of being a detective.





	Just My Imagination

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy,  
> Thank you so much for returning to this story as I know it has been insanely long. I’m so excited to be posting again. I hope you like this chapter and I hope I get the next parts together in much less time than this chapter took.  
> Asha

Just My Imagination  
   
The large windows that faced the street let in soft yellow morning sunshine. It was part of the appeal of the apartment when they moved in, back when Teddy was still Dom Carisi the 3rd and growing inside of Alex. She insisted their firstborn was a boy until the day she met the world and surprised them. They imagined quaint mornings at the breakfast table with the baby, forgetting that nothing goes smoothly with an infant or full time working parents. They’d come up with a good routine that was about to be thrown into chaos with Sonny’s new job.  
   
Still they had the next two days to live out the fantasy that they were a perfect young family.  
   
"You know what I miss?" Alex raised her arms high above her head as Sonny followed her into the kitchen with Teddy in his arms.  
   
"Hmm?" he asked in the middle of pulling a silly face for Teddy to giggle at.  
   
She grinned when she caught him and he responded with a knee weakening smile complete with dimples.  
   
"Shower sex," she wiggled her eyebrows.  
   
Sonny quickly covered the baby's ears. "Al!"  
   
She rolled her eyes at his piety. "Sonny she doesn't know the word 'sex.' She doesn’t even know the word, ‘shower’!”  
   
"Still," he insisted.  
   
She leaned into her daughter's face giving her a loud wet kiss on the nose. "You don't know what sex is, huh babe? But now that you're getting older I'm feeling...especially horny"  
   
"Alex!" Sonny squeaked and threw her a dirty look.  
   
She cackled. "Oh Ted, I do hope you take after this one and his modest sensibilities."  
   
"Enough!" he argued as she continued to laugh. He muttered as he set Teddy in her high chair near the dining table. "I'm not dat old-fashioned once me and her are alone. I just don't wanna share dat with da world, Ted. The other night--" he finished with a low whistle.  
   
Alex looked over the fridge door at Sonny muttering so seriously to the baby. "Sonny?"  
   
He jumped, startled by her call, and looked behind him, "what?"  
   
Her cheeks pinked as she beamed at him, "I love you."  
   
His dimples made their appearance once again, "it's your turn to cook breakfast."  
   
She groaned and hid her face behind the fridge door. Sonny laughed as he sat beside Teddy and carefully began peeling a banana.   
   
"And no cereal, you gotta cook something," he warned  
   
"Dada, wanna nana," Teddy reached out with her small hands.  
   
Sonny handed Teddy a small piece of banana, "dere ya go sweet pea."  
   
"Mmmm," she cooed as she began smashing banana into her face.  
   
Sonny smirked and looked over at Alex proudly as if to say, 'Look at our amazing child.' She rolled her eyes as she placed a carton of eggs on the counter.  
   
"Don't pray for any miracles, baby," Sonny warned as his phone rang. "You better scramble those."  
   
Alex pouted and didn't look back over her shoulder at him as she pulled out the rest of her tools annoyed with his insinuation.  
   
"What's up Walt?" Sonny answered, helping Teddy with more banana. "Just making breakfast...yeah...I could do that. Let me check with Al...c'mon man I can't just take off."  
   
Sonny laughed, "alright you check with the husband."  
   
He held his phone against his chest and looked at Alex. "Ey, we doing anything today?"  
   
"We need to go grocery shopping." She carefully whipped the eggs she cracked into the bowl.  
   
"Walt wants to go for a run," he replied.  
   
Alex made a sour face, "I hate running."  
   
"I know," he rolled his eyes, "he didn't invite you."  
   
She sneered, "well go running then, butthead."  
   
Sonny grinned and picked up the phone pressing it back to his ear. "Walt? Yeah I'll meet you there in like an hour?"  
   
"You boys and your running for...pleasure...ick!" She ground pepper into her egg mixture.  
   
"I run for exercise, stamina-- no I'm talking to Alex," he intoned into the phone.  
   
Alex snorted.  
   
"Hour, south entrance?" He finished. "Alright."  
   
He dropped his phone onto the table and sighed.  
   
"What? Did I intrude on your male bonding time?" Alex whipped the eggs with a smirk.  
   
"No, no of course not" he shook his head. "I'm gonna get changed while you finish dat."  
   
He left them alone as he sauntered off to the bedroom.  
   
 Alex made a noise and looked over at Teddy who was destroying her banana. "He's a big dork, huh Ted?"  
   
She laughed to herself while she checked the heat of her pan. Seeing it was warm enough she dumped her whipped eggs, satisfied with the sizzle.  
   
"Do I have clean shorts, Al?" Sonny yelled across the house.  
   
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know Sonny look in the middle drawer."  
   
"I did!" He yelled back and then after a beat, "never mind."  
   
"Some detective he was huh?" She joked to Teddy.  
   
There was a rap on the door just as Alex started pushing the eggs around the pan. She sighed, lowering it just slightly before rushing to the door. Amanda was on the other side of the locked door with a large set of sunglasses covering her face. She grinned.  
   
"Hey Amanda?" Her eyebrow raised in surprise.  
   
"Hey, I brought doughnuts. Is Sonny home?" She carried the pink box aloft and walked in.  
   
Alex smirked at the appearance of his ex-partner. She and Jessie were pretty constant figures in their lives the last 5 years: dinners, holidays sometimes, and often times just to come talk shop with Sonny.  
   
"Sonny, Rollins is here!" Alex called with a slight air of annoyance and returned to the stove to stir her eggs.  
   
He popped out of the bedroom still half dressed as he slipped a t-shirt overhead. "Ey, what're you doin here? Did I forget to sign off my hours dis month?"  
   
He laughed and sat down next to Teddy. Amanda smirked and sat down across from him, setting down the doughnuts and a file. Sonny's eyebrows jumped with excitement at the treats and he reached across for the box.  
   
"Dada! Mmm wanna," Teddy ordered making a grabby motion with her hand as he took a bite.  
   
He sighed and tore off a tiny piece to feed her. "Dis is all you get ya little monster. Mama is makin' eggs."  
   
Amanda laughed. "She's got you wrapped around her finger Carisi."  
   
Sonny grinned. "Like Jessie don't got your number. How's the menagerie?"  
   
Amanda blushed and rolled her eyes at the mention of the pets she kept after Jessie fell in love time after time. Alex laughed as she moved to get plates.  
   
"Eggs, Amanda?"  
   
She shook her head, "oh no thank you. I'm fine."  
   
"What's up?" He motioned to the case file she had folded her hands over in an attempt to bring up casually.  
   
She sighed, "I need your help. I know you're not a cop anymore and--"  
   
"Dis is highly illegal!" Sonny took a bite and made a motion with his fingers, smiling slyly "hand it over!"  
   
She smiled and pushed it across the table. He flipped open the cover as Alex set a plate in front of him and she gasped. He quickly shut it.  
   
"I should've warned you," Amanda looked up apologetically at Alex.  
   
She shook her head quickly and took a seat. She reached for the doughnut box that Sonny pushed back towards her before opening the file again.  
   
"Who filled this out?" Sonny questioned. "The handwriting is terrible."  
   
Amanda almost laughed at his attention to detail. Something she was going to miss. "It's about 20 years old."  
   
"Cold case?" He asked.  
   
"Not exactly but look at this one," she pulled another file from her bag and pushed it across.  
   
He let out a gasp of disbelief when he opened the second one. "Dat's uncanny. The first one wasn't solved then."  
   
"That's the kicker. It was." She added darkly.  
   
He stared at her questioningly eyebrow arched high. Alex cleared her throat and both of them turned to look at her.  
   
"Oh," Sonny stared back at Amanda. "I'm not even supposed to be looking at dis."  
   
"No," Alex reminded him looking pointedly at Amanda, "he's not."  
   
"Sorry I just...remember the McCarthy case?"  
   
Sonny looked in the distance trying to jog his memory. "Two kids, step dad was-- no way, you think this is some kind of brand?"  
   
Alex's fork scraped the plate loudly. "Amanda, what happened with Ryan?"  
   
Amanda blushed at the intrusion. "It's over."  
   
"Aww," Alex frowned. "He was cute."  
   
"Too cute," Amanda rolled her eyes. "I dunno the younger guy thing was never gonna work out."  
   
"You didn't give him a chance. He's a DOCTOR!" Alex insisted.  
   
Sonny rolled his eyes. "Oh, he's a doctor," he mimicked, "how can you dump a DOCTAH huh?"  
   
Alex grinned devilishly at her husband. "Well ya know they're good with their hands."  
   
She wiggled her fingers and eyebrows at the same time. Sonny rolled his eyes again and shoveled eggs into his mouth.  
   
"He made it clear women with kids weren't something he was interested in," Amanda explained and took a doughnut from the box.  
   
Alex and Sonny returned their attention back to their friend and groaned collectively.  
   
"Ya don't need him then," Sonny comforted.  
   
"What an asshole!" Alex announced loudly.  
   
Amanda smiled at their concern. She was quite content being on her own and raising her daughter, with the occasional help of Declan. Still it was nice when they commiserated with her 'single mom' plights.  
   
"How's the new partner?" Sonny smirked.  
   
Amanda shrugged. "A little green, but he's alright."  
   
"I know you miss me more than words can say..." Sonny laughed.  
   
Amanda and Alex rolled their eyes collectively and caught each other's eye with a small grin at his overdramatic speculation.  
   
"I'll see you soon enough. Maybe I'll get put on svu and--"  
   
Amanda sighed.  
   
"What?"  
   
"Nothing," she shook her head. "I just...how do you leave this?" She pointed at the files as she loaded them back in her bag.  
   
Alex snorted. "How do you leave child abuse? Sexual assault and murders?"  
   
Amanda shrugged again. Sonny rolled his eyes at his wife. "I'm still gonna see dat ya know? Now I just won't carry a gun."  
   
"Well thank god for that," Alex added impatiently.  
   
Amanda grimaced. She and Sonny made brief eye contact. She knew very well how Alex handled Sonny as a cop, especially after he passed the bar. It was the only real struggle in their relationship, one that they both complained to Amanda about. She was biased to Sonny's side but she understood Alex's fears even before Teddy changed everything. Having a kid was something that sealed it for Sonny. He needed stability, security, and safety. Alex called his career change his "nesting" period.  
   
"I oughtta get going." Amanda stood up. "I just wanted to get your take. It's a habit I'm gonna have to break."  
   
Alex just shook her head, letting Amanda know it wasn't a big deal. She knew it wasn't an easy thing to let go of for Amanda or Sonny.  
   
"I'll walk ya out. I'm meeting Walt for a run," Sonny tore off a half of a donut and stuck the other half in the box as he stood up.  
   
He kissed Teddy's forehead and came around her highchair to kiss Alex goodbye.  
   
"Have fun," Alex grinned. "Both of you!"  
   
Amanda smirked and waved, "bye bye Teddy."  
   
Alex awkwardly waved her baby's hand, "bye bye dada, bye Amanda."  
   
Teddy mimicked the words in her baby talk and smiled at the pair as they headed for the door.  
   
"I'll be back in a few hours," Sonny called as he followed Amanda out the door.  
   
Amanda frowned as they reached the street. "I guess it's gonna be an adjustment getting used to you as a lawyer."  
   
"I've been a lawyer for years, 'Manda," he pouted. "C’mon let's go down to the precinct--"  
   
"Aren't you going on a run?"  
   
"Yeah I'll stop by and help you out and then go meet up with Walt." Sonny lifted an eyebrow as he looked at her.  
   
She smirked. "And Alex?"  
   
He sighed. "Al doesn't have to know. I'm just helpin' ya brainstorm."  
   
She grinned. "Well if she asks I won't lie."  
   
"I'd never ask you to lie for me Amanda," he smirked and clapped her on the shoulder. "C'mon ya know you were baitin' me."  
   
She smiled up at him with a slight blush.  
   
"One last case for da road," Sonny grinned and followed her to the car.  
   
Sonny rolled down the window as she started the car and pulled away from the curb. "Ya know you don't have to go out with the guys Al picks out for you."  
   
"Is that a hint of jealousy?" Amanda smiled.  
   
He shrugged, "sometimes I think it's guys she woulda dated if she wasn't married."  
   
"Maybe," she laughed, "but she loves you."  
   
"Yeah," he stared back at their building as they drove off.  
   
Amanda rolled her eyes, "okay, don't be gross about it."  
****  
"You got something to prove Staten Island?" Walt panted as he caught up to Sonny ahead on the path.  
   
Sonny turned and grinned. "Yeah that I can outrun you.”  
   
Walt flexed his eyebrow. "I had no idea you were so vain."  
   
He shrugged, "I'm not but I don't wanna stop keeping in shape even though I'm not gonna be...ya know in the field.”  
   
"Oh yeah you were chasing down perps all the time, huh?” Walt laughed. "Just slow down."  
   
Sonny smiled ruefully at his brother in law as he took a pull off his water bottle. "Sorry. Something on your mind?"  
   
"What makes you say that?" Walt tightened the laces on his sneakers.  
   
"You an' Al get the same look when ya wanna talk about things," he explained.  
   
Walt rolled his eyes. "I want a baby," he admitted flatly.  
   
Sonny widened his eyes, "a baby?"  
   
"That shocking?"  
   
He quickly shook his head, "no. How does Raf feel about it?"  
   
Walt sighed and pouted his lips. "I haven't brought it up directly."  
   
"You? Skirt around an issue?" Sonny laughed.  
   
Walt squirted the water bottle at him with a glare.  
   
"Ya look like Alex when ya mad too," he shielded himself from the water. "He's great with Teddy."  
   
Walt looked skeptical and shrugged. "I just always assumed it would be an easy decision. Not a decision at all but--"  
   
"But Raf's not exactly paternal," Sonny agreed. "He might surprise you."  
   
Walt nodded. "I dunno. Being an uncle isn't like being a dad."  
   
"Besides the obvious equipment issue?" Sonny smirked.  
   
Walt shot him another dangerous look, "yes, besides that."  
   
Sonny clapped him on the back, "you'll figure out a way to talk to him. He loves you."  
   
Walt suddenly blushed and nodded. "Race you to that post?" he motioned with his chin.  
   
Sonny glanced ahead at the post 20 yards down the path. "You're on, Barba."  
   
"It's McClure. He didn't marry me for my dowry," he looked fiercely at Sonny as he took his position.  
   
He laughed, "yeah but it was nice ya ma gave me all those goats for marrying Al."  
   
"Don't you hate goats?" Walt stood up.  
   
"Yeah, but it's the da thought that counts, right?" Sonny kept his gaze on the post down the path. "Go!"  
   
He was off like a bullet and Walt yelled in protest as he jetted after him. Sonny stopped short of the designated spot and looked towards a group of trees off the path.  
   
"What's up? You’re letting me win?” Walt caught up again, catching his breath. Sonny held up his hand to halt him and looked carefully where his eyes had landed.  
   
"Dat look like a kid's jacket?" Sonny motioned to a small patch of yellow in the foliage.  
   
Walt looked where he indicated and shrugged. "Maybe? Kinda looks like a shopping bag"  
   
Sonny walked off the path towards it anyway. Walt rolled his eyes.  
   
"Can't take the cop out of the boy, huh?" He laughed.  
   
Sonny tossed him a serious look. "Shh. Dere, what's dat?"  
   
He pointed to the shoe sticking out from under the bushes.  
   
"Creepy," Walt commented and threw up a palm as he watched Sonny pull his phone to his ear.  
   
"Ey, Amanda?" He started. "I'm over here in Washington park and there's some weird stuff I found..."  
   
Walt walked forward and picked up the shoe. "It's not weird. It's trash...oh my—that’s blood!”  
   
"Don't touch dat!" Sonny stepped forward, knocking this shoe from his hands with a stick and staring fiercely at Walt.  “I think it’s worth checking out.”  
   
He hung up and looked shrewdly at Walt. "Dat might be evidence ya know?"  
   
"Of what?" He shrugged. "Maybe they fell in the park? It could be anything.”  
   
"Don't you think I'd know better than you?" He countered. “That is a little boy’s shoe! That’s suspicious.”  
   
Walt stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good thing you’re a detective.”  
   
Sonny pouted his lips in his direction.  
****  
“Here, have a cookie, sweetie,” Alex handed Teddy a baby cookie in an attempt to control her and settle her in the shopping cart.  
   
Alex hated grocery shopping without Sonny. She could’ve waited but as the hour dragged on to two she decided she didn’t want to waste away at home nor did she want to nag just because she got so used to having him around. Still he seemed to know how to shop for meals instead of Alex’s method of buying things she liked and hoping they’d make sense later.  
   
She followed her appetites to the snack aisle looking for something crunchy and salty she could munch on in front of the TV.  
   
"Ey, missuz Carisi!" Vince startled Alex from the nutritional facts she was carefully mulling. He was in full uniform, hand idling on his holster belt near his baton, cap covering his short haircut.  
   
She laughed a little to cover her surprise, dropping the box of crackers in the cart. "Alex," she corrected.  
   
"Oh, and little miss Carisi," he leaned into Teddy in the basket seat, standing close beside Alex.  
   
She reached up her hand with a gooey cookie affixed to it. "Mmm?" she questioned.  
   
"No thanks just had lunch," he laughed while patting his stomach.  
   
"What are you doing here?" Alex's question came out harsher than she intended. "I mean your beat is down in Staten Island?"  
   
He smiled quickly. "They needed some help up here in Manhattan. Shorthanded."  
   
"Hmm," she nodded. The way he stood close made her uneasy.  
   
"You guys live around here?" He asked.  
   
"Not far," she answered shortly, gripping the cart and beginning to move it forward.  
   
"It's a nice neighborhood," he nodded again. "No Sonny today?"  
   
Her head whipped up to stare at him.  
   
"Sorry that wasn't supposed to sound like dat. He's probably workin' hard huh?"  
   
She smiled lightly. "Y-yeah...no. He's out for a run with my brother."  
   
He nodded and grinned at Alex and then at Teddy, who continued to suck on her cookie.  
   
Alex coughed "how's your nose?"  
   
"Oh," he touched the tender still bruised cartilage. "Not bad thanks to you."  
   
"It was nothing. Just a couple of butterflies." She smiled anyway. "Just stay outta scraps Officer."  
   
He smirked at her and laughed. "I dunno how Carisi handles you. You're trouble, man."  
   
She shrugged. "Trouble how?"  
   
"I mean no offense but..." he motioned over her body with a wave of his hand.  
   
She glanced down at her jeans and the lightweight sweater she had on. She shrugged again.  
   
"You're hot." His face flushed. "I mean, and you flirt."  
   
"I do not flirt," her eyes narrowed.  
   
He laughed again "sure you do. Dat was a show the other night.”  
   
"The other night?" Alex looked dumbfounded.  
   
"Ah don't be shy." He laughed in a way that made her bristle. “It's fine. I'm sure marriage gets a little boring."  
   
Instead of questioning further to determine what he was talking about she rolled her eyes. "I think I gotta get going..."  
   
"I offended you," his shoulders slunk pathetically.  
   
"No," she shook her head. "I just have a lot of things to do today."  
   
He stood in front of her cart to stop her from moving and she jumped back surprised. He held up his hands in surrender.  
   
"I'm sorry. I know I come off..." he shrugged. "I'm working on it. I just don't have a lot of friends."  
   
She laughed and shook her head. "You're a liar."  
   
His face darkened. "Liar?!"  
   
"You grew up in Staten Island there's no way you don't have friends here."  
   
He sighed. "I turned over a new leaf. I don't have a lot of 'good' friends ya know? I'm trying to stay away from some of the old guys, ya know?"  
   
She smiled ruefully. "I understand."  
   
"I was hoping we could be friends," he smiled in his best impression of friendly but it still came across slightly threatening.  
   
She swallowed, "uh..."  
   
"I mean you, me, and Sonny," he corrected.  
   
"Right," she nodded. "Sure. We can have dinner some time. I'll give you Sonny's number."  
   
He took the meaning and stood straighter. "I'll just look it up."  
   
"Look it up?"  
   
"Police database," he answered nonchalantly.  
   
Alex arched her eyebrow.  
   
"Mama!" Teddy suddenly yelled. "Done," she announced handing off the end of the mushy cookie to her mother.  
   
Alex smiled broadly at her daughter. "Thank you, baby," she grinned as she took the cookie and kissed her nose, thankful for the distraction of her baby.  
   
"You wanna grab a drink or somethin'?" He asked, nonplussed by her obvious change in attention.  
   
Alex frowned and looked away. "Uh..."  
   
"Oh right, da baby," he suddenly smiled at the little girl in the cart. "Some other time then."  
   
"Yeah," she nodded hesitantly. "Aren't you on duty?"  
   
"What? Oh yeah," he nodded too and laughed. "I forgot."  
   
Alex giggled uneasily. "Alright...well I'm gonna go...lots to buy."  
   
"Bye baby girl," he leaned in and wiggled his fingers at her.  
   
Alex pushed her cart away with a very small wave his direction. She headed to checkout aware she only had half her list checked off. She was grateful for the empty lane and that she was able to pay fast. She took her few bags and Teddy and rushed outside not daring to look back over her shoulder. She could feel her heart racing and she felt like crying. The way he stared. What he said about being a show-off. What did that mean?  
   
She walked home on autopilot, barely aware of her surroundings. She dumped the bags on the table and sat with Teddy on the couch, not bothering to unwrap her from the sling. It wasn't until Sonny came through the door, still in his shorts and gym shirt, that she realized she was just sitting there.  
   
He raised his eyebrow, “ey, whatsa matter?"  
   
"What?" She sat up. "Nothing."  
   
He eyed her suspiciously. "Baby?"  
   
She got off the couch realizing Teddy had fallen asleep.  
   
"You just get back?" He looked at his watch. It was a gift from Rose when he got married. It had belonged to Ted and Sonny wore it everywhere.  
   
"Yeah, I gotta put her down," she shuffled off quickly down the hall leaving Sonny to put away the handful of groceries.  
   
She put Teddy down gently in her crib and left the Tula wrap on the chair. She went into the bathroom and rubbed water over her face. She wondered to herself if Vince had actually said the things she heard.  
   
It was strange he was here in Manhattan. No matter what excuse he gave. Or maybe it wasn't so strange, she thought. She felt confused. He didn't do anything. He wasn't that close to her and he wasn't exactly a stranger. Sonny knew him and maybe he was kind of a loser but he was a cop. She knew lots of cops and they had to be pretty upstanding to make the force.  
   
‘Right?’  
   
She sighed and returned to the living room where Sonny had finished putting the groceries away.  
   
"You got bananas, milk, and potatoes. What exactly were you planning on making?" He smirked.  
   
"Order pizza," she frowned as she flopped on the couch.  
   
"Goat cheese?"  
   
"Arugula, fig, I don't care babe." She curled into the arm of the sofa and turned on the TV.  
   
"Ey?" he came around the sofa and sat next to her. "What's the matter, princess?"  
   
"Tired," she lied as she picked up the remote and began scrolling. "Oh, that documentary about the Freeway Killer is on Netflix."  
   
She sat up with interest. Sonny chuckled and kicked off his shoes. "Put it on!"  
   
"They have courtroom footage, oh my god!" Alex read the blurb on the screen.  
   
Sonny laughed again. "We were made for each other baby."  
****  
Alex passed out in Sonny's lap, scraps of pizza on the paper plate on the coffee table. He played with the strands of her hair as he scrolled through Netflix.  
   
Her phone pinged loudly making both her and Sonny jump.  
   
"I fell asleep?" Alex questioned sleepily reaching for her phone on the table. The sun had begun setting, leaving the living room fairly dark.  
   
"Only the last 15 minutes or so," he rubbed her head and grinned. “Lights go out, you go down” he snapped his fingers to illustrate.  
   
"It’s a skill, sweetheart," she swung her legs over the couch and sat up as she read her message.   
   
"You were at a crime scene today?" Alex suddenly looked up from her phone and tossed a glare at him over her shoulder.  
   
Sonny turned slowly back towards his wife.  
   
"Walt told me," she answered the question hanging on his mouth. "I can't believe you Sonny!"  
   
He quietly cursed his brother-in-law under his breath. "Al, it wasn't a crime scene..."  
   
"Walt said you called Amanda and a dozen people showed up to collect evidence."  
   
"Well..." he lifted his arm and scratched the back of his neck. "It wasn't on purpose."  
   
She breathed hard, audibly.  
   
"'Ey! Don't act like I committed a capital offense!" He argued.  
   
"The whole point of you leaving the force was safety--"  
   
"Please spare me your 2nd amendment lecture, Al!"  
   
She sputtered and crossed her arms. "Whatever!"  
   
"Ya know, both your brothers have guns in--"  
   
"This isn't about my brothers! That's different!" She got up and stomped around the sofa picking up random toys spilled around the living room as she went.  
   
"Why? Because they were, I dunno, TRAINED how to use them?" Sonny spat sarcastically.  
   
She rolled her eyes as she pushed past him to the bedroom. Sonny quickly followed.  
   
"Okay," he sighed and put his hands on his hips. "Okay, I'm sorry."  
   
"No, you're not."  
   
Sonny flattened his lips and sighed loudly. Alex made a show of picking up loose clothes from the hamper, back to her husband.  
   
"Al..."  
   
"Whatever I don't want to have this fight again." She still didn't turn.  
   
"It's the last time." He added, rubbing his hand down her arm.  
   
"Uh huh," she responded with a bored drawl.  
   
"I start on Wednesday, baby. It's gonna be different."  
   
She turned and put her hands on her hips. "Yeah you're just gonna be married to the office like Rafael."  
   
"Ey what do you want from me, Al? Live in a bubble?" He sneered but sat on the edge of the bed and reached his arms out to her in an attempt to pull her to him.  
   
She dropped her arms and hung her head to one side as she shook her head. "I don't know Sonny."  
   
"I know how to take care of myself, okay?"  
   
"But what if--"  
   
"Al," he cut her off. "You're gonna 'what if' yourself to death!"  
   
"Sonny--" she started again.  
   
"No, stop it. We've already had this fight." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "You know that I love you and Ted and I'm doing everything I can to protect you."  
   
"I know," she relented, body finally relaxing against him.  
   
"Nothing is going to happen to me," Sonny assured her. "I'm not a cop anymore baby. I'm not going to get hurt."  
   
Alex sighed. She blinked back a tear as she sat beside him.  
   
"What?" He bumped his shoulder with hers.  
   
She shook her head. "Nothing."  
   
"I didn't know it was going to make you this upset, alright?" He stood up again and gestured with his hands. "I'll talk to Amanda, tell her not to be coming by with bait like dat."  
   
Alex looked up suddenly. "Oh, it's her fault?"  
   
"No--" he threw his hands up and slapped his thighs, "I didn't say--No!"  
   
From the other room Teddy began whining.  
   
"Now da baby is up!" he scowled and stomped out of the room to comfort his daughter.  
   
Alex wiped her tears on the back of her hand. She could hear Sonny's change of tone as he spoke to their daughter. It almost made her smile. She sighed again before getting up and following him to the baby's room.  
   
She stood at the threshold and leaned on the frame watching the pair. She smiled slightly. Sonny looked up at her, he smiled back when he caught her eye.  
   
"See everything is gonna be alright. Right Ted?" He bounced her in his arms.  
   
Alex smiled broadly. "Don't use the baby."  
   
"But Al, she's so cute and beautiful and she looks like her Ma," he grinned at Alex.  
   
She sucked in a tear anyway and stroked one of Teddy's cheeks. Sonny frowned.  
   
"I feel guilty," she sobbed. "Like I made you--"  
   
"Ey," Sonny halted her, "you didn’t make me do nothin'. I was in law school long before I even met you. I liked being a cop, but being a lawyer was my dream."  
   
Alex nodded.  
   
"We're settling in. I'll start making a little more money, we'll have another baby and move to Staten Island or something."  
   
Alex blew a raspberry and made a face. "Down the street from Dom and Annie?"  
   
Sonny laughed. "C'mon it'd be good to have family in the area."  
   
"Sarah is around the corner, your sisters are just uptown. Even Walt and Raf aren't far."  
   
"Ah, well I guess dat's a fight for another day then." He gently placed their daughter back in her crib, staring at her as he spoke.  
   
Alex rolled her eyes.  
****  
Coming off what Alex and her co-workers referred to as “rush hour,” the time just before a shift change when inevitably there would be an onslaught of tedious or very sick patients, she sauntered to the nurse’s station and sighed loudly. “Mrs. Needham in 5 is IV’d, morphine’d, and jello’d, so if there’s nothing else, I’m going home to see my baby.”  
   
“Aw, it’s sweet you still refer to Sonny as your baby,” Dr. Malucci smirked as he pointed to the doors where a police officer was hustling in a black man with a bloody face. “There’s always something else…Nurse Carisi.”  
   
She made a growling noise towards him and rushed over to the officer. The man in his grip pulled away, his face a mess of blood.  
   
“Ey, Missus Carisi!” Vince smiled at her and held onto his charge roughly. “Stop fighting me, or I’m gonna give you something to cry about.”  
   
“What’s up?” Alex eyed the man carefully, “That’s a nasty cut under your eye. Bustin’ up fights, Vince?”  
   
“Jimmy Lester, 22, pulled him off a corner selling heroin, ran and busted his face on a curb.”  
   
“That wasn’t mine!” the man yelled, greeted with a swift yank of his arm by Vince.  
   
“Take him to bed 2, I’ll send a med student over in a few,” Malucci told Alex.  
   
“C’mon, over here,” Alex led Vince and the patient over to the bed.  
   
“Follow the pretty lady,” Vince directed, dragging him along.  
   
“Dude, c’mon!” he yelled again, “He’s crazy!”  
   
“Easy.” Alex turned and raised her eyebrow as he settled on the gurney. “What did he do again?”  
   
“Caught him slinging crack—“  
   
“I told you I wasn’t! That wasn’t mine” he complained. “Does he have to be here?”  
   
“Didn’t you say heroin? Is he under arrest?” Alex asked.  
   
“Of course, but he was crying on the way here—“  
   
“You broke my fuckin’ nose!”  
   
Alex turned to Vince with shock, “Wait, you did this to him?”  
   
“What?” Vince gave an unconvincing shrug, “No, he’s obviously lying. He ran for it…”  
   
Alex nodded and got her tray together to begin cleaning his face. “Well, you don’t have to stay here while we examine him.”  
   
“Oh, you’d like to see me walk away, huh?” Vince taunted the man.  
   
Jimmy spit in Vince’s direction.  
   
“Oh, dat’s assault!” Vince grabbed his arm once more and manhandled him.  
   
“Whoa, easy!” Alex motioned to the railing, “Really, Vince, you can cuff him to the bed.”  
   
“What the fuck? No, way,” Jimmy screamed. “I didn’t do nothing. This guy is crazy!”  
   
“Either that or officer Friendly sits beside you all night,” she shrugged back.  
   
“You sure?” Vince asked. “You trust this guy?”  
   
Alex smiled and shook her head. “You want us to fix your face?”  
   
“Is this gonna scar?” he asked earnestly.  
   
“Nah,” Alex got up close to the swelling near the cut under his eye, “Amir is pretty good.”  
   
Amir, the med student stitching up the arm of a woman a few beds away waved with the tool in his arm. “I’ll be over in 15.”  
   
The patient swallowed and then sat back, “whatever.”  
   
“Pain?” Alex asked, picking up the chart she started.  
   
“Oh no, he’s probably all doped up already,” Vince sneered.  
   
“I told you, I didn’t—“  
   
Again, Alex looked at Jimmy carefully, “he doesn’t look high to me, no track marks. Are you in pain?”  
   
He nodded. Alex nodded in turn, “Okay, I’ll check with the doctor, I’ll be back.”  
   
She pulled the curtain around him and motioned for Vince to follow her. “Come.”  
   
He eagerly followed her to the hallway, where the sounds of the ER were briefly muted.  
   
“Did you hit him?” she asked harshly once they were far enough away from the patient.  
   
The smile disappeared from his face, “What? No!”  
   
“Good, because you better have all your ducks in a row,” she narrowed her eyes and pushed her finger into his chest.  
   
He suddenly laughed, “whoa, what do you think is going to happen?”  
   
“Is he actually under arrest?” she asked, without answering his question. “You found drugs?”  
   
“Yes, my partner is doing the paperwork, but he was crying so he wanted us to bring ‘em in to you.” He pointed in the direction of the ambulance bay where his partner was presumably filling out a report. “What is your problem?”  
   
Alex stood back to assess herself and take a breath. She shut her eyes and shook her head, somewhat embarrassed by her reaction to him. She shook her head while she crossed her arms over the chart in her hands. “You came in pretty hot and he didn’t look like a dealer…”  
   
“Oh, who’s stereotypin’ now, sweetheart,” Vince laughed.  
   
Alex held up her hand and rolled her eyes, “listen, I know you’re the cop, but I see junkies and dealers too and that just looks like a kid who’s been punched in the face so you better make sure you have a case.”  
   
He laughed sardonically, “spoken like da wife ovah lawyer.”  
   
She rolled her eyes again and returned to her patient, leaving Vince to laugh alone in the hallway.  
****  
Sonny set Teddy on the counter of the nurse’s station. “Alright, what tragedy is keeping my wife in the emergency prison,” he laughed loudly.  
   
“Ahh, you brought Ted,” Hope ran around the counter to greet her co-worker’s baby daughter.  
   
Sonny grinned at the attention she garnered, gladly handing her over to Hope’s embrace. “When your wife’s 2 hours late, you gotta come investigate.”  
   
“How are you so cute, Teddy?” she asked her rhetorically, while she bounced her.  
   
“It’s all in the genes,” Alex interrupted and kissed Sonny on the cheek, “Two minutes.”  
   
Sonny pushed back his sleeve to look at his watch, “I’m counting, Walt is panicking about dinner getting cold and we need to pick up ya Mom.”  
   
“Aw, are the Carisi’s doing Shabbos?” Hope asked as she continued to play with the baby.  
   
“Trying to, anyway,” Sonny shook his head as Alex wrote notes furiously. “Now, dat I get off at a decent hour…Al takes forever!”  
   
Hope laughed. “So, first week as a DA is good?”  
   
Sonny began to answer Hope as a uniformed cop approached the nurse’s station and spoke to Alex, “Jimmy Lester set to go?”  
   
Alex looked up, “You’re Lambrusci?”  
   
He nodded. She motioned him towards the bed where Jimmy was getting his last dressing.  
   
“So, he’s being charged?” she put her hands on her hips. “Drug charges?”  
   
“That’s what Vince said,” Lambrusci nodded.  
   
“You didn’t see it?”  
   
He shook his head, “Vince chased him down…he found the stash in his pocket.”  
   
Alex nodded along, but raised an eyebrow, “You trust Vince?”  
   
“Hey, DiRialto is a little bit of a hothead, but he’s a good cop. Why would he lie?”  
   
“Keep his arrest quota?”  
   
“You have him wrong,” Lambrusci explained. “The guy was selling, got caught and he ran…”  
   
“And if DiRialto was a little rougher than he needed—“  
   
“Must’ve felt threatened.” he bristled when he answered her, setting his jaw tight.  
   
Alex continued to nod, “good, okay. Glad you stick by your partner.”  
   
“Yeah, cops usually stay loyal, at least until they turn into chicken shit lawyers.” he added sarcastically, curling his lip and nodding his head towards Sonny, laughing with Hope at the nurse’s station.  
   
Alex’s face darkened. “He’s good to go. Thanks, Officer Lambrusci.”  
   
“No, problem, Nurse.”  
   
Alex walked away rolling her eyes. She didn’t usually get involved with police matters but Vince had gotten under her skin. She didn’t trust his demeanor. She had known a large number of cops working in the hospital and through Sonny and most were stand up people, but still something gnawed at her about Vince DiRialto.  
   
“Ya gonna be in a mood now?” Sonny asked when she arrived back at the desk.  
   
She uncrossed her arms, “What?”  
   
“What’s up?” Sonny looked beyond at Lambrusci and Vince getting their perp ready for transport. “That Vinny?”  
   
“Yeah,” she signed off her last chart.  
   
“Thought he was down in Staten Island?” Sonny’s eyebrow curved with curiosity.  
   
“Guess Manhattan is shorthanded,” Alex answered shortly and grabbed her daughter from Hope. “C’mon let’s go break challah with the McClure-Barbas.”  
   
Sonny turned away from the officers and grinned at his wife. “Yeah, let’s.”  
   
As they made their way through the parking garage towards the sensible car Sonny felt his new position warranted Alex still looked deep in thought.  
   
“Something wrong?” Sonny asked, unlocking the car doors with the key fob.  
   
She shook her head and began to get Teddy into the car seat.  
   
“Al…” he asked again.  
   
“When you were a cop, did you ever…I don’t know get too rough with a criminal?”  
   
Sonny raised his eyebrow, “Vinny?”  
   
She shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe I’m just imagining it. What kind of guy was he growing up?”  
   
Sonny sighed. “A ne’er do well.”  
   
Alex giggled at his use of language. “But I mean, he was a good kid in a bad situation? Like you?”

Sonny shook his head as they settled into their seats, “no, not like me. I remember my dad constantly picking up Vinny’s dad for being drunk in public, domestic violence…Vinny was always looking for attention, anyway he could get it.”  
   
Alex nodded, still contemplating.  
   
“But, ya know, my dad says he’s really turned over a new leaf, and for my dad to say dat…” Sonny started the car and paused to look at his wife. “If my pops says Vinny is cop material, then he proved his worth. He’s always had a temper, but that’s half the cops in the United States.”  
   
Alex sighed, “the ones who shoot innocent people?”  
   
Sonny turned back to her harshly, “Al, c’mon, we’re doing the best we can out there. Sometimes it’s a split decision between life and death…”  
   
She rolled her eyes at him, “You mean they. They are doing the best they can, cops. You’re a lawyer now, Sonny.”  
   
He chuckled. “Yup, a junior ADA! It’s like being a traffic cop all over again, just the shitty leftovers.”  
   
Alex batted her eyelashes, “Yeah, but you make shitty leftovers look so good, babe.”


End file.
